With all due respect to Robert, Frank, Bowser, Fox, Mary Anne and others here; I found your immediate complaints of agency foot-dragging worthy of comment, even if it had to be put over here on Flame.

These are real days and these are real issues. Seems like a lot of officials agree with you. Simply because our troop and disaster preparedness was in place in other areas, and where we NEED it is at home. I have always said that. Sometimes it takes a very public event like this to educate and polarize the people once more.

I am shocked by the disaster as well, and have been in mourning for days myself. I saw no reason why you should have not been able to be in outrage and start pointing your fingers immediately.

Now this is going to sound partisan, but it's a FACT:
Bush, after 9/11 imedialtely vowed revenge for the wrong culprits, defined his "axis of evil" and secretly created plans for the invasion and takeover of Iraq (that had been on the books for years...the Project for the New American Century), and he PUSHED forward with his plans by keeping us in the dark, bribing and co-ercing the rest of the world, etc.....and now we wonder why other countries aren't coming to help US?

Flames or not, your comments echo what happened here in the Habitable Zone right after 9/11 and we were ALL embroiled and shouting about Bush's decison to go to war.
This national disaster is bringing our troops, supplies and manpower back into our country where it is needed the most.

Everybody else, flame away!
BTW, Robert, if you read this; I hope you have archived our posts during the time period of 9/11 and Bush's first push to war. And the few months that followed our "invasion". THAT would be interesting to read, now in hindsight.....you could call it "20/20 Vision." Maybe we could have a separate board for it?